this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2025
168 points (98.8% liked)

Technology

77039 readers
3008 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Generative “AI” data centers are gobbling up trillions of dollars in capital, not to mention heating up the planet like a microwave. As a result there’s a capacity crunch on memory production, shooting the prices for RAM sky high, over 100 percent in the last few months alone. Multiple stores are tired of adjusting the prices day to day, and won’t even display them. You find out how much it costs at checkout.

top 37 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 3 points 19 minutes ago (1 children)

So? Don't fucking buy it! Has that never occurred to some y'all? If the rest of the world had my purchasing habits we'd already be looking at Depression 2.0.

[–] thatonecoder@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 minutes ago

Some peopne may need RAM, however.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 25 points 1 hour ago

First they came for the hard drives, and I did not speak out because I didn't need a hard drive. Then they came for the GPUs and I did not speak out because I had a pretty dope GPU. Then they came for my 8gb of ram and there was nobody left to speak out for me.

[–] demizerone@lemmy.world 20 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (2 children)

I have 128gb of corsair ddr5 in my closet. IM RICH!

Just did a quick check, it's worth double what I paid for it. I'll just let it sit in my closet until it's worthless.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 5 points 42 minutes ago

Is it sitting on top of a pile of beanie babies?

[–] RepleteLocum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 29 minutes ago

If it’s new it genuinely might be worth 2k. Looked at the prices yesterday and corsair had 64gb for ~1k.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 8 points 1 hour ago

Multiple stores are tired of adjusting the prices day to day, and won’t even display them. You find out how much it costs at checkout.

Someone should tell them about those e-paper price tags...

[–] Dogiedog64@lemmy.world 10 points 1 hour ago

If you want to see a good set of graphs on pricing over time, PC Parts Picker does some good ones. It's absolutely INSANE how bad it's getting. The graphs in question.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 1 points 43 minutes ago* (last edited 43 minutes ago) (1 children)

Another user in the BlueSky thread showed a photo that appears to be a Best Buy case of RAM, showing a 32GB set of two DDR5 DIMMs going for over $400 USD, a 64GB kit for over $900.

If I hit Google Shopping, which indexes a ton of retailer sites, I can find 2x16GB DDR5 DIMMs for far less than that at various retailers that haven't jacked up prices yet.

https://www.google.com/shopping?udm=28

My first hit for "2x16gb 32gb ddr5" sorted by price is this:

https://pcpartshawaii.com/products/kingston-fury-ddr5-32gb-2x16gb-5200mhz-cl40-ram

Kingston Fury DDR5 32GB (2x16GB) 5600MHz CL40 RAM KF556C40BBK2-32

$100.00

They say that they have two in stock.

These guys are next lowest:

https://www.barcodediscount.com/catalog/kingston/part-kcp548us8k2-32.htm

Price: $103.06

[–] HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 20 minutes ago

Who goes to best buy for ram? Like the physical store... Everything small is marked up anyways.

[–] BD89@lemmy.sdf.org 24 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Lol pricing computer parts like they do fish in an expensive restaurant.

What a time to be alive.

[–] comador@lemmy.world 7 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Thing is, this isn't new in the slightest.

I remember calling around to different PC stores in the 90s and early 00s to find the cheapest RAM and hard drive prices.

Before that, I remember my grandfather, an IBM employee in the 60s-90s calling places looking for best pricing on 64k-128k SIPP memory for an ibm pizzabox 286.

[–] 3abas@lemmy.world 7 points 2 hours ago

That was the norm before it was so easy to buy online from across the country, local stores set their own prices and a few minutes of calling to find the best deal is like searching on Google for a few minutes to find the best deal... But they weren't doubling in price in a couple months, that I can recall anyway.

[–] Artisian@lemmy.world 1 points 52 minutes ago

(I know it's not the point, but a reminder that data center climate impact, including heat, is nowhere near flight, agricultural waste, or construction. Hate it for its own reasons, not for fake ones.)

[–] markz@suppo.fi 121 points 5 hours ago (4 children)

I swear there's a new gold rush every time I want to upgrade my pc.

[–] notabot@piefed.social 64 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

It wouldn't be quite so bad if the previous gold rush ended first, but they seem to just be stacking up.

[–] bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 hour ago

This AI bubble needs to explode yesterday, Wall Street be damned.

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Speak for your self - scored a nice GPU upgrade during the crypto crash, maybe something similar will be achievable after this insanity hits the brakes.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 2 points 1 hour ago

Until the next crisis...

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 34 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

This is why I'm still running ddr4. Every time I think about upgrading a generation, there's a run on some integral component.

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

AM4 is gonna last until the 2030s at this rate...

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

With how good my 5600x still performs, I could very well see it lasting that long. Assuming it doesn't randomly kill itself after a few years like my previous ryzen 5.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I was silly and got myself a 5950X. But I feel less silly about it now tbh. It’s gonna become my new homelab core whenever I get the chance to do a new gaming build again that’s not a high 4-figure investment.

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 hours ago

Totally worth it with how good ryzens have held up performance wise. Unless you're doing some really CPU heavy stuff or have a beast of a GPU, you probably won't get bottlenecked by the CPU for at least 5 more years.

Unless you're using windows in your homelab. I assume you're not since you have a home lab.

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 hour ago

5800x3d was probably my best cpu purchase of all time, damn

[–] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

In a sane world, the limitations of a CPU socket would be reached, and then newer SKUs would no longer be release and all stock for prospective builders would be second hand.

That's clearly not the case here. AM4 continues to get new CPU releases and parts are still available new from retail, years after the support officially ending. That's a good thing for variety and entry level machines, but such dependency means a future CPU could be limited in featureset/performance if it releases on AM4 instead of AM5, which there may be enough demand to force designers to downgrade chips for AM4 compatibility.

[–] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 1 points 4 hours ago

I dki so too - just upgraded my X2600 with a shiny X5950, the nicest cpu my aging mainboard can run. with 16 cores and 64 gigs of ram i see a future when i simply replace the entire machine for daily use and make this one a very nice server.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

It’s why I started treating computers as commodities — I rarely upgrade anymore; just wait the 5 years and by an entirely new system.

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Same except for me it's 10 years.

[–] popekingjoe@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

This is about my upgrade cadence, except for storage. I ran my Ryzen 1600 until the 7000 series dropped and upgraded mobo+RAM at once for about $600.

I then moved the old parts to another case to use as a low load server only for both the motherboard and CPU die within a few weeks. 🫡

[–] the_q@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 hours ago

So it's your fault...

[–] pressedhams@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

It’s not a fucking lobster. Base pricing per unit based on whatever profit margin you need on that item.

Nope, let’s get as much as we can at all times, like it’s silver bullion.

[–] osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org 16 points 3 hours ago

No, they have to base the price on what it costs to order the next shipment, unless they want to just stop carrying ram or you expect them to take on a loan for that. The wholesale market for ram must be fucking wild for a retail store to think they have to post something like that.

[–] cv_octavio@piefed.ca 5 points 3 hours ago

I only use Alaska King RAM.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 8 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

As a result there’s a capacity crunch on memory production, shooting the prices for RAM sky high, over 100 percent in the last few months alone

They said "market price".... What market are you shopping at?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KXrQYWbbIs